Cosmetics brand adds a commerce-enabled Facebook store

Makeup manufacturer and e-retailer Nyx Cosmetics in mid-December quietly opened a commerce-enabled Facebook store where Facebook users in the U.S. can buy its products without ever leaving the social network. The company says the Facebook store is one part of its strategy to offer consumers the opportunity to shop in every emerging online sales channel without redirecting them to NyxCosmetics.com.

“We want consumers to have a unique and complete shopping experience, whether that be on Facebook, mobile, or iPad,” says Toni Shin, vice president of marketing for Nyx Los Angeles Inc., which distributes and sells Nyx Cosmetics to consumers in the U.S., primarily through bricks-and-mortar retailers including Ulta and some J.C. Penney and Nordstrom stores. “We want those experiences to move fluidly, without disruptions and where they feel secure.”

Facebook users visiting Nyx Cosmetics’ Facebook store page can now select from an assortment of about 120 products like lipsticks, false eyelashes and makeup brushes, add items to the cart and complete the purchase using PayPal or a credit card. A store application called Storeplacer from social commerce software developer ADnoli LLC powers the store, relays order information to Nyx and sends payment data to Nyx’s payment processor. Shin says Nyx Cosmetics didn’t promote the store’s launch initially because it wanted to test to make sure the integration with its back-end inventory and order processing systems worked correctly, but says without any promotional support Facebook fans found and shopped the store. The Nyx Facebook store collected its first order last week, Shin says.

With everything operating properly, Shin says Nyx will launch a 50% off sales promotion on certain products next week that is available only to consumers who shop and complete a purchase within the Facebook store. “The offer won’t be available anywhere else online,” Shin says. “We think it would be nice for our fans to have a sale exclusive to them.” She says Nyx will be promoting the sale to the brand’s more than 107,000 Facebook fans through posts on its Facebook wall and through Twitter. Shin says Nyx will add more of its nearly 1,900 available SKUs to its Facebook store soon and is working with Storeplacer to sync its inventory so the Facebook store shows current product availability.

Shin describes Nyx Cosmetics’ Facebook fans as honest and vocal, and says she fully expects to receive a lot of feedback about the Facebook store from them. Nyx plans to factor that feedback into its purchasing plans. “They know the Nyx products and they’re savvy shoppers. They’ll share their ideas with us and that allows us to know what they want. It’s a good gauge for us to know what our fans would like to purchase,” Shin says.

Nyx Cosmetics is the first large-sized client to launch a Facebook store using the Storeplacer app, says ADnoli CEO Jason Lobel. Shin says Nyx was open to using the Storeplacer app because it had an ongoing relationship with ADnoli for its Facebook marketing and wanted to expand its capabilities on the social network. Lobel says the work to refine the app and customize it to Nyx Costmetics’ needs took about six months. ADnoli will make the app more broadly available next month, when marketers and e-retailers will be able to make more day-to-day updates, like adding new products and photos, themselves, he says. Lobel says pricing for the application is flexible at this time, but typically includes a one-time set up fee based on the amount of work it takes to integrate the app to e-retailer’s systems and a revenue share for sales made through the app. The Storeplacer app is hosted and delivered online.

Pursuing its strategy to offer consumers unique experiences in all online sales channels, Shin says Nyx Cosmetics is working on a mobile commerce application with Storeplacer and will debut a redesigned NyxCosmetics.com this spring.